Comments on: Russia 2045: will the Singularity be launched in Russia?

By: Hertzle

Hertzle — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 08:03:12 +0000

Interesting thing about Russia, it is one of the few countries where the supply of fresh water is actually **increasing** whilst it is considered to be decreasing everywhere else. And some say that water is the new oil.
… and it does have oil too… and lots of land … and a lot of smart people, so all that’s needed is a “spark” or impetus to kick-start the economy. The economic woes afflicting Russia may be the very impetus required to spur them into action. Sometimes humanity needs a fire under it’s metaphorical backside to get things done. Case in point: America was never so productive as when they were competing with Russia in a game of “One Up-manship”. The Second world war resulted in unprecedented technological advancement (although the price was awful, and hopefully never to be paid again)

Russia is a fire-keg of potential, not to be under-estimated.

By: Nyk

Nyk — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 18:23:05 +0000

The Chinese are going to do it after they overtake the US economically (a matter of time). The US has become too socialist to be able to compete with China. The US offers welfare not only to the poor, stupid and lazy who just have more poor, stupid and lazy children, but also to Goldman Sachs executives and other people who get rich simply through money transfers from the productive middle class; meanwhile, China pays it’s brightest minds to build bridges and infrastructure.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure who will be getting first to the Singularity.

By: allanbcampbell

allanbcampbell — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 17:55:42 +0000

Isn’t a more obvious priority the development of a braining scanning, mind-file backup technology. Many people are dying right now, hourly in fact, and will die between now and the point in time that they can be saved. And these deaths will not only be due to disease and old age. Accidents, homicides, suicides, wrong place wrong time situations can happen to any one of us and we have no backup. All available resources should be directed towards this. A brain scanning technology that could generate data files that could be archived must surely be a higher priority than brain interfaces, brain prosthetics and photonic substrate technology.

By: Aleksandr Panin

Aleksandr Panin — Sun, 06 May 2012 07:50:35 +0000

Oh really?
And who are you? Why do you think that “Russia 2045″ is just another big hoax project?

By: Alexandr Adlov

Alexandr Adlov — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:54:39 +0000

Danila Medvedev, who is mentioned in the article, also hosts a TV show on a Russian state channel. The show is about the future, of course. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id9ZLqtrWlI

By: evgeniy

evgeniy — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:27:09 +0000

To everyone writing about russian demographics – actually, according to the recent data, Russia was able to reverse the negative trend. 2009 was the first year since 1990′s when annual population growth was recorded. Check the graph here:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Population_of_Russia-rus.PNG/400px-Population_of_Russia-rus.PNG

By: Renzo Canepari

Renzo Canepari — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 06:42:00 +0000

Does anyone know if the Chinese are continuing de Garis’ project now that he has retired?

By: John

John — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:15:29 +0000

By promising “We’ll make you immortal and godlike”, don’t think you’d get much money. So their intentions are at least pure. They really want to accomplish these projects. But sometimes simply wanting something really bad just isn’t enough.

By: ztr

ztr — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 09:51:07 +0000

thiis is just another big hoax project.

I’m inventor from Russia and I know the real situation in this country – there are not possible to do anything. most people are dumb. laws are dumb.

so as i already told the name of this project not 2045 but “give me money! i want more money!”

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 07:38:50 +0000

It will take the global community to achieve such feats. The world is already working in such a fashion with the internet and globalization of business and culture. It will not be any one country that does this. It will be the world working in unison.

By: John

John — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 09:43:31 +0000

It’s easy to be overly optimistic, when your knowledge is weak. And Itskov looks like that kind of guy.

Since Russia has a tradition of launching spacecrafts while wearing bast sandals, everything is possible and there are people strongly believing and dedicating their lives to work on ‘far-fetched’ ideas. There is pretty strong AI community (http://ailab.ru/forum), there is Danila with his team who are a bunch of a hella activists, there’s maybe someone else.

But besides there’s not much happening compared to other countries. If I were to bet which country leads the world to the singularity, it would be China or USA (in that order).

By: Ted Rodosovich

Ted Rodosovich — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 01:13:26 +0000

Here, Here!!! Just think of what could be … if resources now going to religions were diverted to science … ? !

By: DeBee Corley

DeBee Corley — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 21:35:21 +0000

A Kleptocracy working on the singularity.

Bring plenty of money and equipment, the Russians will shamelessly steal all of it. Then put you in jail for having the audacity to complain about the theft.

By: DrDubious

DrDubious — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:54:02 +0000

Singularity has Vladimir Putin written all over it. I can definitely see him wanting to live forever and become the first transhuman.
Most American seem to believe they are already transhuman and see such research as a waste of money (like education, healthcare and infrastructure). They’re expecting Jesus to upload them for free.

By: Editor

Editor — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:46:23 +0000

I’ll have what she’s having.

By: Editor

Editor — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:45:03 +0000

Thanks for avoiding the “hangs like a loose tooth” cliche. :)

By: Khannea Suntzu

Khannea Suntzu — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:30:37 +0000

I am very proud of my special friend to Itskov. You know who you are – please fix me one prosthetic body mmmkay? Fully functional please.

By: gaoptimize

gaoptimize — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:39:55 +0000

Western investment in Singularity-driving technology hangs by a fraying thread, as the debt bubble approaches collapse. There are an increasing number of wealthy westerners making emigration contingency plans, should the economic and political climate turn hostile (arrive at the cliff we are racing towards). Russia certainly could be considered a destination, but I would feel better about Russia’s future if their gorgeous, intelligent women were having more children. Demographics is destiny.

By: Kyle Rybski

Kyle Rybski — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 22:10:09 +0000

Certainly, I have a hard time seeing a singularity event stemming out of the US. While we have a lot to offer toward speeding the journey, there continue to be impeding cultural forces here that I don’t see relenting any time soon.

But Russia? While yes, they have great minds at work, their investment in the most relevant fields (genetics, neuroscience, nanotechnology, and AI) is weak.

As long as the leaders in these fields continue to be the US, Japan, and Germany, my money’s on them.